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When Monica Ruffo was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of breast cancer, she researched health and wellness practices to help her feel better throughout her 15-month cancer treatment. Ruffo's research led her to uncover a white space in the market for natural health products that are actually all-natural. She spent two years working with Food and Drug Administration and Health Canada consultants to create Well Told Health, a line of clean supplements crafted exclusively from organic food. Ruffo had previously spent her career in marketing and advertising and founded and sold an advertising agency. After getting better, she turned down her "dream job" as a CEO at a media company to create a company that would make people feel healthier and happier. "It wasn’t until I stepped away from pursuing success and decided to follow my passion that I realized that being happy on a regular basis will lead to far greater success than simply pursuing success itself," says Ruffo. We spoke about her pursuit of health and happiness.

Amber+Robert Media

Monica Ruffo, founder and CEO of Well Told Health.

Elana Lyn Gross: You were inspired to start Well Told Health when you were diagnosed with breast cancer and were looking for clean health supplements. What was your career path?

Monica Ruffo: Until I started Well Told Health, I’d spent my whole career in marketing and advertising, which are industries I really loved while I was working in them. During that time I worked for various companies and also started my own agency, which was later acquired by Interpublic Group of Companies so this is my second entrepreneurial venture. While starting a natural health company was quite a departure for me, I’d always been passionate about health and wellness and always took the greatest interest in my clients in these fields. In the back of my mind, I think I had always intended to do something in this space. But it wasn’t until I received this diagnosis that it made me realize that there was a need for a product like this. Oddly enough, at the same time as this was going through my head, I was offered a CEO position at a New York-based media company which in many ways was that “dream job” I had always aspired to. It definitely pushed me to make a decision, and I ultimately decided that I needed to follow my passion. If you had told me five years ago that I would be turning down the job I turned down, I would have said you were crazy. But life is full of surprises and what makes you happy at one moment in your life is not necessarily what makes you happy at another moment in your life.

Gross: What was the process of creating supplements and getting them approved?

Ruffo: It was a long process. When we started out, we set very strict criteria in terms of what we wanted, which were products that were free of synthetics, fillers and isolates, gluten and soy and that were Organic Certified, Non-GMO Project Verified and vegan. We also wanted to hold ourselves to the highest testing protocols. I knew this would all be difficult, but I would never have thought it would take over two years. It’s one thing to imagine a formulation, but it’s another thing to actually find the ingredients, for example. There were some ingredients we wanted to use and either couldn’t find organic sources or their microbial count was too high. We worked through the whole process with Food and Drug Administration and Health Canada consultants to make sure everything we were doing was totally compliant with regulations. We also worked with a medical advisory board that helped us come up with the formulations – each one took multiple iterations.

Gross: What advice do you have for other women who hope to start their own businesses?

Ruffo: Do it. If you have the entrepreneurial bug then you have to muster up the courage to pursue it and follow your passion. For some people that passion is working at a large company and reaching high levels of management, and that’s great too. But if what motivates you and gets you going is creating something or filling a void in the market, then you owe it to yourself to be brave and help change the world. There’s nothing more fulfilling.